Blister Beetles!
- Thread starter Marsha Cassada
- Start date
Help Support Miniature Horse Talk Forums:
Becky
Well-Known Member
Thanks for posting that link, Marsha. We saw a jar full of live ones at the OSU Horse Owners Veterinary Symposium last Saturday. Nasty creatures! I hope I never have to deal with those in my hay.
How was the symposium? I would love to have gone, but the day was wrong for me. What sort of things did you learn?
We always make sure the hay we get doesn't have them. The cuttings from now on are unsafe.
We always make sure the hay we get doesn't have them. The cuttings from now on are unsafe.
Becky
Well-Known Member
The symposium was absolutely wonderful! Every topic was worth hearing and I learned things I didn't know. The morning session was all lectures and the afternoon was 'lab' sessions. I'm so glad you posted the info about the symposium here on the Forum. I was completely unaware they have these every year and I plan to go from now on. I was so impressed, I ended up taking a horse up there this past week for some minor surgery.
Yes, blister beetles are deadly. I use a lot of alfalfa, but I won't buy locally grown if I can help it.
Yes, blister beetles are deadly. I use a lot of alfalfa, but I won't buy locally grown if I can help it.
A good friend here lost a couple of horses to blister beetles a few years ago. WARNING: Don't ever buy alfalfa off the side of the road. Her husband bought a load of beautiful, green alfalfa from someone with a trailer load of it parked along the road. They fed most of the 50 bales before they got to an infested bale, then ended up losing 2 minis and nearly losing a couple of race mares. She tracked the guy down, he was still in the same small town, and told him what happened - his response,"well I didn't guarantee it for horse hay". He knew it was loaded with beetles and continued to sell it!! He just moved to another town 40 miles or so away! Enough people in the area had sick horses and spread the word that he was run off, but I'm sure he is still setting up shop somewhere. He came from either Kansas or OK. Know your grower, or at least know who you are buying from and that they will stand behind it.
Jan
Jan
We have our own alfalfa but several years we have had to NOT feed it because it has had blister beetles in it. So sad to see such nice hay that cant be fed but NOT worth the cost of loosing a horse for sure.... My husband cuts it so he always checks it out before and during cutting and if he even thinks he sees one it goes straight to his cattle - doesn't even come to the house where the horses are.... So sorry to anyone who has lost one to this....
Our local hay guys know about blister beetles and horses. Some won't even take a chance on selling hay to horse folk.
One way to check is to lift the bale and see if the beetles are under it. Check at least every 3rd or 4th bale. If you see even one, then it isn't good. I learned this while getting some alfalfa out of a field. A hay broker was there loading his truck. He was taking it to Texas for horse folk, and was diligent about checking for the blister beetles.
One way to check is to lift the bale and see if the beetles are under it. Check at least every 3rd or 4th bale. If you see even one, then it isn't good. I learned this while getting some alfalfa out of a field. A hay broker was there loading his truck. He was taking it to Texas for horse folk, and was diligent about checking for the blister beetles.
I don't buy alfalfa locally; drive a long roundtrip to get second cut from a grower I know and trust down near where I lived before we moved up here 30 years ago....but, an area 'merchantile' where I've bought grass hay in several past years recently sold some alfalfa(supposedly from CO, but I don't know that for a fact), that had blister beetles in it. Several equines died in the East Mt. area where I live. It even made the local TV news; the store manager was interviewed, said they 'couldn't know there were blister beetles'...but it surely points up the importance of KNOWING and TRUSTING your supplier(in the store's case, whomever THEY got it from, most likely a hay broker.) There has also been a semitrailer load of alfalfa parked and selling 'off the truck' this summer, down near the tiny 'town'I'm near ...I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole!Whatever 'savings' there might be would be quickly 'wiped out' if there was a problem w/ the hay...and the itinerant seller is LONG GONE....
Margo
Margo
Tony
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2002
- Messages
- 1,953
- Reaction score
- 57
I foolishly bought some alfalfa that looked great from a local hay dealer. Later I found out that he had bought it on the side of the road. The guy said that it was good horse hay. Midway through the lot of it I found three stallions dead and one mare and foal in bad shape. I noticed that the other horses had left the hay uneaten. We found the striped beetles in the hay that was left. I found the seller a few weeks later and traced the hay down to the one who raised it. I had a lawyer get involved, but after finding that the guy had no insurance, I finally dropped the case.
cretahillsgal
Well-Known Member
They are bad here too Marsha. Even had to fish some out of the water trough a week or two ago. We bought our alfalfa from a local farmer who cut/baled it in early April before the bettles were out. AND I was there in the field to inspect it for bettles. So I dont worry about them in my hay, but worry about a horse accidentally ingesting one from grazing. We put down alot of sulfur fertilizer to help keep them away. And I spray my yard/house area with Tempo.
I had a horse acting colicy last week and one of the very first things that my vet did was pull blood and check calcium levels, looking to find any indication of blister beetle poisoning. I guess it makes the calcium levels drop dramatically. My horse was okay, but my vet told me that last week alone she treated 6 cases of colic in our tiny town. One was blister beetle poisoning. All the others were minor and she thinks the weather has something to do with it. We have had major temp changes the last couple weeks from over 100 to 70 degrees drop in one hour!
I had a horse acting colicy last week and one of the very first things that my vet did was pull blood and check calcium levels, looking to find any indication of blister beetle poisoning. I guess it makes the calcium levels drop dramatically. My horse was okay, but my vet told me that last week alone she treated 6 cases of colic in our tiny town. One was blister beetle poisoning. All the others were minor and she thinks the weather has something to do with it. We have had major temp changes the last couple weeks from over 100 to 70 degrees drop in one hour!
Last edited by a moderator:
